Increasing Employee Engagement - How to Engage Your Team Members

My young son received the following note from his sixth grade basketball coach. I shared it with some of my executive coaching clients. I thought it was a great example of leadership and genuine caring. We then had coaching conversations about engaging your people by showing them you truly care. A couple of executives even decided to write some of their people a letter!

You might want to see how writing something similar might engage your team members. A personal written letter may be becoming a lost art, but can mean so much to someone. Employees don't know how much you care about them unless you tell them.

"I just wanted to write you this note and thank you for winning that game today for us. You were fantastic today. Not only were you our high scorer, but I believe you got the most rebounds and made lots of great defensive plays as well. You were everywhere the ball was and played your heart out the whole game.

There is no way we could have won without you.

I also wanted to thank you for playing guard half the time and wing half the time in our games. That's not easy to do but you are the only guy on the team who can play any position.

You are a great player Maddog. Keep working on your game and you will be a star player in High School some day.

Thanks again for a great effort from a great player.

See you at practice,

Coach Bob"

Efforts to raise levels of engagement are worthwhile for those in the not-engaged range. Not engaged employees concentrate on tasks rather than the actual goal they are supposed to accomplish. They want to be told what to do just so they can do it and say they have finished. They focus on process, not results. Managers who only provide tasks to an employee reinforce "not engaged" behaviors and actually move 180 degrees away from engaging the heart, mind, and soul of that person.

Employees who are not engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped. They often feel this way because they don't have productive relationships with their managers or with their coworkers.

The way to get people to become a part of an organization is through relationships. Employees who feel disconnected emotionally from their coworkers and supervisor do not feel committed to their work. They hang back and do the minimum because they do not believe anyone cares. These employees "lower the bar" for themselves by doing the least amount of work necessary.

First, managers need to demonstrate a sense of really caring about employees and what is important to them. Managers can help employees refocus on the demands of their roles and on the skills, knowledge, and talents they bring to their jobs. The manager who takes the time to have a conversation focused on strengths and how these can make a difference forges essential ties and connections that lead to employee commitment.

How do you connect with employees so they know you really care about their success and well-being?

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